PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS CONVERTED 4:3 MATERIAL
The third quarter earnings season has been a bit sour to date and there was no shrugging it off Friday. Disappointing after-the-bell results Thursday from Google and Microsoft set the grumpy tone for markets.
While four top U.S. manufacturers, including Honeywell and General Electric, reported sales figures that fell short of forecasts.
And McDonald's turned in its worst quarterly sales growth in nearly a decade. Adding to a string of ugly results from the restaurant sector.
The effects of global weakness are really evident this earnings period says Hilary Kramer, Editor of GameChangerStocks.com
SOUNDBITE: HILARY KRAMER, EDITOR, GAMECHANGERSTOCKS.COM (ENGLISH) SAYING:
"Right now this earnings season has really been focused on tech and then they are looking at general industries including GE for just a sense of confirmation to what concerns them in terms of China, some of the other emerging markets and in Asia and of course Europe."
It was a brighter story for U.S. housing. While sales of existing homes dropped 1.7 percent last month, the National Association of Realtors says the pullback was due to fewer properties that were available for sale. The median sales price, in fact, bounced over 11 percent to nearly $184,000 from the prior year. Both signs the housing market is climbing out of the hole.
Friday marks the 25th anniversary of the 1987 stock market crash. At the close, there were heavy losses, but nothing near the over 20% plunge witnessed over two decades ago.
Yet it was the worst one-day loss in four months--the Dow shed over 200 points or 1.5 percent. The tech-heavy Nasdaq lost over two percent. For the week, the Dow eked out a minor gain and the Nasdaq lost over one percent.
In Europe, the four-day winning streak came to an end--with the major markets slipping less than one percent.
Jeanne Yurman, Reuters.

French President Emmanuel Macron heads into the summer break faced with falling popularity ratings after tough debates in parliament over labour reform and a public ethics law, a standoff with the military and cuts to housing assistance

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